It was a great day to go on a long run in the mountains, and huffing and puffing up the inclines I listened to books for my #academicrunplaylist!

First was “Crack-Up Capitalism” by Quinn Slobodian. This is a devastating analysis of the development of the philosophies of capitalism without democracy, from anacro-capitalism to various flavors of authoritarian governed capitalist enclaves. Given the absolute moral bankruptcy of these ideologies it's not an easy read, and once again Slobodian does a service by slogging through corrosive writings and speeches to lay out what many actors in this space are aiming to achieve. Special economic zones come over withering criticism, and he once again absolutely eviscerates Milton Friedman. An unfortunately necessary book for our times. Highly recommend https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250753892/crackupcapitalism/

Next was “Changing Gender” by Susan Stryker. Susan Stryker is always a must read, and this book is no exception, providing a boundary-spanning interrogation of the notion of gender. The combination of sociology, history, and linguistic analysis of gender is where this book provides the most insight, compellingly demonstrating how different intellectual and cultural threads developed and ascended over the centuries, as well as how these meanings shifted or were co-opted over time (you'll never listen to "Yankee Doodle" in quite the same way after reading this). There's a bit more autobiographical content than I'd like, and while it's occasionally narratively helpful the chapter that mostly centers on an acid trip can safely be skipped IMO. The book understandably ends with an examination of our current moment in the US, which is both depressing and oddly hopeful. As Stryker mentions, this book and "Who's Afraid of Gender?" Make an excellent complementary pair. Highly recommend https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374123505/changinggender/

Last was “Killing the Black Body” by Dorothy Roberts. I read the 2020 version that has an updated preface, which spends some time reviewing developments since this book's original publication. That certainly helps set the stage, although I do wish some of the language in the book was also updated since some of it hasn't aged well. However, this is still an important investigation of the control, regulation, and cultural interpretation of Black reproduction over US history, with most of the focus on the 1980-1997 era. Roberts shows over and over how a combination of intentional policy choices and a complete lack of political will to deal with the underlying causes of poor Black maternal health and economic conditions has led to appalling outcomes for Black mothers and their families. It's all the more painful reading this today, because not only have we failed to deal with these issues, but also the meticulous legal analysis that Roberts provides here relies on case law which has since been overturned and the fact that the rule of law in the US has perilously crumbled, to the point where reasoned analysis is secondary to the political desires of the Supreme Court's extreme members. Despite that, one hopes that eventually these lessons can be applied once we as a society decide it's time to truly deliver justice and reform our entire system for the better. Highly recommend https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/155575/killing-the-black-body-by-dorothy-roberts/